Cohere just launched 'North', its biggest AI bet yet for privacy-focused enterprises

Together with her released North today, a secure AI workplace platform that directly challenges Microsoft Copilot and Google Vertex AI in the enterprise market. The company claims its new platform outperforms both tech giants' offerings across finance, HR, customer support and IT functions.

North combines rich language models, search capabilities, and automation tools in a secure package that allows companies to use AI while maintaining control over sensitive data. The platform operates in private cloud environments or on-premises, targeting regulated industries such as finance and healthcare.

AI security will become a major battleground for enterprise adoption

“The market for artificial intelligence is maturing, and enterprises are beginning to understand the opportunity,” said Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez in a statement. internal company letter shared on LinkedIn last month. “While consumers have fallen in love with the technology and are using it as part of their daily lives, businesses are struggling to keep up. “

Royal Bank of Canada has already partnered with Cohere to develop North for Banking, a special version designed for financial institutions. This marks one of the first major campaign uses of the platform.

Monitoring technology promises to reduce workflow times

The built-in Northern inspection system, Compassprocesses many types of data including images, presentations, spreadsheets, and documents across languages. Internal tests show that the system reduces task completion times by more than 80% compared to manual searches.

“It's becoming clear that for enterprises, it's not enough to simply promote or upgrade an off-the-shelf consumer AI chatbot for a work environment,” said Gomez. “They want something customized for their needs. They want a real partner to achieve their goals.”

The AI ​​Enterprise race moves from raw power to practical implementation

Gomez challenged the industry's focus on computational scale, noting that “data quality and new techniques like synthetic data have driven much more progress in the last 18 months than scale.” He said that this approach has made Cohere “an order of magnitude more capital efficient than our competition.”

The platform allows workers to build and customize AI tools for their specific needs without requiring technical knowledge. Early adopters include companies in finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and infrastructure—sectors where data security has traditionally limited AI adoption.

North is currently available through the early access programtargeting financial, healthcare, manufacturing and critical infrastructure sectors. The release could reshape how businesses implement AI technologies, as companies prioritize security and customization over raw computing power.

“Going forward, every company will be an AI company,” Gomez said, underscoring the need for secure solutions that can be deployed quickly.